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Topic: my first live removal, a real monster (Read 2177 times)

My brother n law's cousin told me of a large hive they had living under their front porch, for at least three yrs. They were ready to do something about it, as the gas meter reader was getting leary around it, as it was very near the meter. I went by last week and was amazed at this thing. I will try posting pics, still confused as to how to do that. Went by this morning and vacumed bees for over an hour, without putting a dent in their numbers. After another half hour I started to see a decrease in the numbers. Had a rough start of it. Got stung on the hand and knee, and had one try & fly up my right nostril. Grabbed her & through her out just in time. gotta get som sleep, now will continue tomorrow

Sorry Bassman, Sorry all. I've been very busy since the removal. Still have to figure out a few things to do next in regard to the hive. I think there are too many for the deep I put them in, am contemplating adding another full deep, still have a couple of thousand or so around the hive and in the bee vac box. A few more details,( and I will post pics soon) I think if this thing would have been in a wall void it would have easily been six to eight feet long. I filled 5, five gallon buckets with comb. Looks like I will get about 3 gallons of honey, still have to deal with that tonite, so you can see I've been busy. Will post more soon, thnx, JP.

James,it was difficult, I had to lay on my back for most of the removal. It had a lawn mower handle imbedded in it and the gas meter was right next to it. It took a while to get the lawnmower out of the way. Plus, I was trying my best to capture the queen, so I went slowly and methodically, however I did not find her. Hope she's well inside the new deep I provided in my backyard. The entire process took 5 and a half hours. I'm sure with more experience, one could cut that time down a good bit.

promise I will post pics, when I am able, having a problem with photobucket, hope to resolve it soon. Quick update, been enjoying the honey from this hive, delicious, light amber in color, multi-floral. Not sure what will become of this colony, but I am hopeful. Will inspect soon. Am seeing bees every day now that are crawling away from the hive, dying in the grass the following day or that night. I guess they are seriously stressed. There are some small numbers that I see on the entrance board, but most are in the hive. I briefly removed the top cover yesterday and did see some live bees but there were about 20 dead atop the inner cover. Hopefully more live than die. I do have two frames of brood in the center of the hive that I took from the removal, so hopefully they are working on it and hopefully I have a queen in there. If not I can get one about an hour's drive from me. I hope they make it, it was such a large vibrant, and gentle hive before the removal.